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Talking Tacos With PB Chef Who Knows ‘Em Well

Anyone familiar with Nick & Johnnie’s knows the Palm Beach restaurant’s Ahi tuna tacos—Mexican in form, Asian in substance, inexpensive in patron outlay—are popular, but perhaps lesser known is that, like many successful dishes, they were born of an “experiment,” as Kent Thurston, Nick & Johnnie’s executive chef/co-owner, puts it.

“ One of the cooks had an idea to use a gyoza wrapper as a little mini taco shell. I filled it with fresh (raw) tuna, a special ponzu sauce, spicy rice and some other tasty accoutrements (including avocado and cucumber). We were happy with how it turned out. And people really seem to enjoy them.”

Or inhale them. One after another (a plate of them are shown above).

Thurston, also executive chef/co-owner of Cucina dell’Arte and Cha Cha’s, has been toying around with tacos since at least the 1990s, when he attended the University of San Diego, a city where tacos, particularly fish tacos, are a way of life for some.

Thurston’s days of exploring southern California and Baja—fertile ground for taco crawls—inform the more traditional tacos served at Cha Cha’s, where the tortillas are made from scratch with masa and finished parcels range from a Baja fish taco to shrimp al pastor or carnitas with tomatillo salsa, onion and lime.

But the taco of Thurston’s dreams? “Probably something with uni (sea urchin roe) and pork belly, (with) a glass of Haut-Brion to wash it down.”